It should go without saying that a healthy society does not label its children "brats" then make their brattiness fodder for commercial entertainment. Yet here's Brat Camp (ABC, Wednesday, 8 ET/PT), a shockingly vile reality show that uses "brat" only until it can assign such worse on-screen titles as "hostile outcast" and "angry punk."

Copied from a British show by the Big Brother producers, Brat follows nine teenagers who have been sent to "a therapeutic wilderness camp" for forced rehabilitation, a process that would not seem to benefit from national television exposure. A news documentary might examine the ethics of such camps and report on their long-term efficacy. But this is trash TV, and the emphasis is on a peculiar form of reality show drivel: personal growth through public humiliation. Which means the producers have edited the show so that the kids' private pain is not only displayed but also spotlighted and promoted. ("Up next, Jada freaks out!")

Adults who subject themselves to reality's degradations are fair game; kids should be a different matter. If the song is right and children are indeed our future, anyone involved with Brat has a lot to answer for.